Boerne Champion receiver Lang embraces challenge

By Mike Reeder :
August 14, 2012
: Updated: August 15, 2012 9:47am

Boerne Champion junior receiver/defensive back Daniel Lang has impressed coaches and teammates with his hard work and ability to make plays even though he was borne with virtually no left arm below the elbow.

Boerne Champion head football coach Danny Threadgill does not have to look far to find a player on his team who leads by example. All he has to do is cast a glance toward junior Daniel Lang.

The first thing you notice is that Lang is a football player. He may be only 5-7 in height and weigh just 150 pounds dripping wet, and his speed of 4.9 seconds in the 40-yard dash will never set the turf on fire. But no one works harder, competes more intensely or takes his job more seriously than Lang.

However, if you watch him play long enough, you may eventually notice something else: Lang has only one hand.

In fact, he was born with only a few inches of forearm below the left elbow.

Just don't try to tell him he's playing with any handicap. Lang asks for no quarter and gives none.

“No, sir, not at all,” Lang asserted. “I push through it, I work hard and I get the job done.”

“He is a football player, there's no question,” Threadgill declared. “He has a great mentality. He's mentally tough and that comes with dealing with that throughout his lifetime. We don't just stick him on the field just to say, ‘Hey, we stuck him on the field.' We stick him on the field because he's earned that playing time.”

Lang is listed as both a wide receiver and defensive back. At the moment, Threadgill said he expects to play him more on offense than on defense, although that could change.

Anyone who hasn't watched him play might wonder how a person with only one hand can possibly play receiver. But Lang, who power cleans 115 pounds with his right arm, did not drop a single ball during one of the Chargers' passing drills last week.

“I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but I just have to work my way around getting it,” Lang said of his technique. “Usually, I start off getting my hand on it first and then kind of curl over it with my other arm.”

“He catches the ball,” Threadgill confirmed. “That doesn't affect him at all. We don't change anything for him, and he doesn't want us to change anything for him. He wants to be equal to everybody else, and he is equal to everybody else.

“He's an unbelievable young man and he's a guy that when you look at true character, he has it,” the coach added. “He is a genuine person. What you see is what you get. He cares about his teammates and his teammates care about him.”

Lang has been playing organized football since the fifth grade, so competing for playing time is nothing new. Right now, that's his main focus. But he also realizes that others may be inspired by his performance; and that's fine with him, too.

“I think I do (inspire others),” Lang said. “It just shows that after working hard and doing whatever you think you can do mentally, you can achieve it, no matter what.”

Certainly, Lang's play motivates his teammates, who know they better keep up with him on the field.

“These guys look at him and see if he's not making excuses then they understand that they can't make excuses,” Threadgill observed. “So it's a motivational and inspirational factor for all these guys.

“His teammates are just so respectful of him because you never see him complain, you never see him back off, and it drives them to be that much better, too,” the coach added. “They don't complain because they look around and say, ‘All right, this guy's got one arm and he's out there making plays. I've got two and I better start making plays.'”